HIS 106C Food Empires of Asia and the Pacific - Dustin Wright ...
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HIS 106C Food Empires of Asia and the Pacific
MWF, 9:20-10:25AM, Social Sciences 2, 75
Instructor: Dustin Wright, Ph.D.
jdwright@ucsc.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday 2:30-3:30PM
Humanities 1, 525
Teaching Assistant: Kyuhyun Han kha10@ucsc.edu
Sections: Monday 12:00-1:05PM, Crown Classroom 208; Friday 1:20-2:05PM, Porter
Academy 144.
This course examines the historical processes that have informed the food on our plates.
In particular, we will look at food as a medium through which to understand the
processes of migration, invention, colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism that have
shaped much of the Asia-Pacific world.
In some ways, we are together embarking on a project not yet undertaken. Though food
history courses have grown in popularity, they are heavily Eurocentric. Our class
necessarily borrows from the important work undertaken by scholars of the West, though
we do so with an eye towards employing these historical models across Asia and the
Pacific. And why food? Because food (and the other things we consume) can tell us a lot
about how we got here. Among other things, it can tell us about social class, the natural
environment, race, labor, and the invention of tradition.
By the end of the quarter, students will have a clear understanding of the processes of
colonialism and globalization that informed the spread and invention of different food
cultures and cuisines. Participants in the course will be able to recognize that food, diet,
and cuisine are not simply a result of geographic characteristics of Asia-Pacific. Finally,
students should be able to answer the following questions: How has food production
changed over the colonial period? How has human labor informed the spread of new
foods? How has science sought to address issues related to nutrition and food
preservation? How have local communities used food as a form of
resistance/representation?
Readings:
Course readings are available at The Literary Guillotine.
• George Solt, The Untold History of Ramen: How Political Crisis in Japan Spawned
a Global Food Craze (UC Press, 2014) [Note: This book is also available digitally
through the university library]
• Course Reader (Note: I will also make these readings available in pdf on Canvas
[under “Files”])
• Digital readings are also assigned, so be sure to check the syllabus for links.
Schedule:
Week 1: How We Study Food and the Language of Eating (Jan 9, 11, 13)Reader
1. Mintz, Sidney. “Time, Sugar, and Sweetness.” Carole Counihan and Penny Van
Esterik, eds. Food and Culture: A Reader. Taylor and Francis, 2012.
2. Barthes, Roland. “Toward a Psychosociology of Contemporary Food Consumption.”
Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik, eds. Food and Culture: A Reader. Taylor
and Francis, 2012.
3. Heldke, Lisa. “Let’s Cook Thai: Recipes for Colonialism.” Carole Counihan and
Penny Van Esterik, eds. Food and Culture: A Reader. Taylor and Francis, 2012.
4. Mew, James and John Ashton. Drinks of the World (Chapters on “Beer” and “Tea”).
1892.
5. Al-Baghdadi. “A Baghdad Cookery Book.” Albala, Ken ed. The Food History
Reader: Primary Sources, 2013. [Skim for what interests you]
Digital
• Sifton, Sam. “Asian Essentials for Easy Weeknight Meals.” The New York Times,
September 22, 2015. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/23/dining/miso-soy-sauce-
asian-ingredients-for-weeknight-cooking.html.
Week 2: Colonial Routes, Culinary Classes (Jan 18, 20 [Group 1 reading presentations])
Reader
1. Frasch, Tilman “The Coming of Cacao and Chocolate to Ceylon,” Food and
History, 2014, Vol. 12, Issue 1, pp. 137-152
2. Diaz, Bernal. “Montezuma’s Banquet.” The Food History Reader: Primary Sources,
2013.
3. Bergougnoux, Véronique. [Read up to at least page 176] 2014. "The history of
tomato: From domestication to biopharming." Biotechnology Advances 32, no. 1:
170-189
4. 1650s coffee advertisement. Albala, Ken ed. The Food History Reader: Primary
Sources, 2013.
5. Susanne Freidberg, “Freshness from Afar: The Colonial Roots of Contemporary
Fresh Foods,” Food and History, Vol. 8 Issue 1.
Digital
• Sidney, Deana. “Chiles’ Global Warming.” Saudi Aramco World, March/April 2014,
Vol. 65. Number 2.
http://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/201402/chiles.global.warming.htm (AND
WATCH THE VIDEO!)
Week 3: Making “Traditional Food” (Jan 23, 25, 27 [Group 2 reading presentations])
Reader
1. Swislocki, Mark. “Thinking about Food in Chinese History,” in Culinary Nostalgia:
Regional Food Culture and the Urban Experience in Shanghai. Stanford, 2009.
2. Reader, John. Potato: A History of the Propitious Esculent. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2009. (Selections)
3. Collingham, Lizzie. Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors. Oxford, 2006.
(Selections)
4. Albala, Kenneth. “Macau.” Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO,
2011.6. Wong, Hong Suen. “A Taste of the Past: Historically Themed Restaurants and
Social Memory in Singapore” in Cheung, Sidney, Chee-Beng, Tan, eds., Food and
Foodways in Asia. Routledge, 2007. Khayyam, Omar.
7. “The Rubaiyyat.” Albala, Ken ed. The Food History Reader: Primary Sources, 2013.
Digital
• [Watch on your own, available through the library] Monika Treut. The Raw and the
Cooked: A Culinary Journey Through Taiwan. n.p.: First Run Features, 2012.
https://ucsc-kanopystreaming-com.oca.ucsc.edu/video/raw-and-cooked?final=1
Week 4: Culinary Modernity, Food Assimilations (Jan 30, Feb 1, Feb 3 [Group 3 reading
presentations])
Reader
1. Mabalon, Dawn. “As American as Jackrabbit Adobo: Cooking, Eating, and
Becoming Filipina/o American Before WWII.” Ku, Robert Ji-Song, Martin F.
Manalansan, and Anita Mannur, eds. Eating Asian America: A Food Studies Reader.
NYU Press, 2013.
2. White, Merry. “Coffee in Public: Cafes in Urban Japan” in Coffee Life in Japan
(University of California Press 2012), pp 1-18.
3. Majima, Aya. “Eating Meat, Seeking Modernity: Food and Imperialism in Late
Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Japan.” Critical Readings on Food in East
Asia. Brill, 2013.
4. Watt, Lori. “A ‘Great East Asian Meal’ in Post-Colonial Seoul, Autumn 1945.”
Cwiertka, Katarzyna, ed, Food and War in Mid-Twentieth Century East Asia.
Routledge 2013.
5. Tarulevicz, Nicole. “Making the Past the Present: Food in a Multiracial Port City,”
in Eating Her Curries and Kway: A Cultural History of Food in Singapore.
University of Illinois Press, 2013.
Week 5: Food and Conflict (Feb 6, 8 [Midterm Poster Presentations], 10 [Group 4 student
presentations])
Reader
1. Aldous, Christopher. “A Dearth of Animal Protein: Reforming Nutrition in
Occupied Japan (1945-1952), in Food and War in Mid-Twentieth Century East Asia
(Ashgate, 2013).
2. Padoongpatt, Mark. “‘Oriental Cookery’: Devouring Asian and Pacific Cuisine
During the Cold War.” Ku, Robert Ji-Song, Martin F. Manalansan, and Anita
Mannur, eds. Eating Asian America: A Food Studies Reader. NYU Press, 2013.
3. Pollock, Nancy. “Learning About Radioactive Contamination of Food: Lessons
from Hiroshima and U.S. Nuclear Testing in the Marshall Islands.” Food and War in
Mid-Twentieth Century East Asia. Routledge, 2013.
Text
• Solt, Introduction, Chapter 1: “Street Life: Chinese Noodles for Japanese Workers,”
& Chapter 2: “Not an Easy Road: Black Market Ramen and the U.S. Occupation.”
Digital
1. “Hawaii pig shipment after the war to be memorialized in Okinawa,” The Japan
Times, October 15, 2015.http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/10/19/national/history/hawaii-pig-shipment-
after-the-war-to-be-memorialized-in-okinawa/#.VnGXod-rRsO
2. OPTIONAL- Cwiertka, Katarzyna. “War, Empire and the Making of Japanese
National Cuisine.” The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. http://apjjf.org/-
Katarzyna-Cwiertka/2475/article.html
Week 6: “Modern” Food (Feb 13, 15, 17 [Group 5 reading presentations])
Reader
1. Jordan Sand, “A Short History of MSG: Good Science, Bad Science, and Taste
Cultures.” Critical Readings on Food in East Asia. Brill, 2013.
2. Croll, Elisabeth. “The Rice Bowl and the Family.” The Family Rice Bowl: Food and
Domestic Economy in China. UNRISD and Zed Press, 1983.
3. Wolff, David. “Toward a Soy-Based History of Northeast Asia.” The South Atlantic
Quarterly, Volume 99, no. 1. Duke University Press.
Text
• Solt, Chapter 3 “Move On Up: Fuel for Rapid Growth.”
Week 7: Domesticity and Food Empires (Feb 22, 24 [Group 6 reading presentations])
Reader
1. Allison, Anne. “Japanese Mothers and Obentōs: The Lunch-box as Ideological State
Apparatus.” Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 64, No. 4, 1991. Catholic University of
America Press.
2. Hart, Dennis. “Creating the Korean Housewife.” “Creating the Korean Housewife,”
in From Tradition to Consumption: Construction of Capitalist Culture in South
Korea. Jimoondang Publishing Company, 2001.
3. Han, Kyung-Koo. “The ‘Kimchi Wars’ in Globalizing East Asia: Consuming Class,
Gender, Health, and National Identity.” Critical Readings on Food in East Asia.
Brill, 2013.
4. Wu, David. “Cantonese Cuisine (Yue-Cai) in Taiwan and Taiwanese Cuisine (Tai-
Cai) in Hong Kong,” in Wu, David and Cheung, Sidney, eds., The Globalization of
Chinese Food, Curzon, 2002.
Week 8: Pacific Food Nationalism (Feb 27, Mar 1, Mar 3 [Group 7 reading presentation])
Reader
1. Bindon, James. “Taro or rice, plantation or market: Dietary choice in American
Samoa,” Food and Foodways, 3:1-2, 59-78, 1988.
2. Wu, Frank H. “The Best ‘Chink’ Food: Dog Eating and the Dilemma of Diversity.”
Gastronomica 2, no. 2 (2002): 38–45.
3. Ames, Chris. “Amerikamun: Consuming America and Ambivalence toward the U.S.
Presence in Postwar Okinawa.” The Journal of Asian Studies 75, no. 1 (February
2016): 41–61.
4. Bak, Sangmee. “McDonald’s in Seoul: Food Choices, Identity, and Nationalism,” in
Watson, James L., ed., Golden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia, Second
Edition. Stanford University Press, 1997.
5. Moon, Okpyo. “Dining Elegance and Authenticity: Archeology of Royal Court
Cuisine in Korea.” Critical Readings on Food in East Asia. Brill, 2013.Week 9: Pacific Food Futures (Mar 6, 8, 9 [Group 8 reading presentation])
Reader
1. Jayasanker, Laresh “Indian Restaurants in San Francisco and America: A Case
Study in Translating Diversity, 1965-2005,” Food and History 2007, Vol. 5, Issue 2.
2. Sakamoto, Rumi, and Matthew Allen. “There’s Something Fishy about That Sushi:
How Japan Interprets the Global Sushi Boom.” Japan Forum 23, no. 1 (March
2011): 99–121.
3. Lukacs, Gabriella. “Iron Chef around the World Japanese Food Television, Soft
Power, and Cultural Globalization.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 13, no.
4 (July 1, 2010): 409–26.
4. Coe, Andrew. “Devouring the Duck” in Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese
Food in America. Oxford University Press, 2009.
Text
• Solt, Chapter 5. “Flavor of the Month: American Ramen and ‘Cool Japan’”
Digital
• Walden Bello, “How to Manufacture a Global Food Crisis: The destruction of
agriculture in developing countries,” Asia-Pacific Journal, May 3, 2008 Volume 6,
Issue 5, Number 0. http://apjjf.org/-Walden-Bello/2767/article.html
Week 10: Final Project Presentations, Final Course Potluck(s)
• Sign-up sheet to be sent out separately
Evaluation
Attendance: Attendance is required. I will take attendance periodically throughout the
course. Anything beyond two unexcused absences in lecture could result in the deduction
of one letter grade. If you are going to be absent, send me an email beforehand.
Discussion Section: Attendance is required. Sections will be oriented towards
accomplishing two goals: discussing the week’s readings/lectures, building a poster
presentation (for the midterm) and digital presentation (for the final). Missing more than
two sections without a reasonable excuse will result in the complete loss of the section
grade.
Weekly Reading Responses: Every section, you should bring 1-2 pages of writing notes
to turn in, which will be used to verify attendance. These can be short reflections of the
course material or argumentative pieces. These could also simply be legible and
organized notes (possibly in outline format) on the week’s readings. Topics you might
include: main argument; how are the writings “in dialogue” with each other? When were
they written and what does that tell us about the writings’ historical context?
In-class Group Reading Presentations: During Week One, I’ll send out an email sign-up
sheet. In groups of three or four, you will present one week’s readings. Your group can
decide who will present which reading, but everyone must present something. Your oral
presentation might include: the relationship (if any) between your readings to those in
previous weeks; the form of the piece (essay, recipe, etc); the author’s main
arguments/intentions; the main sources of the piece; the relationship between the reading
and your own project. Each person should present for between 5-8 minutes.Midterm Poster Presentation (February 8): Choosing a food commodity, dish, or
restaurant, you are asked to historically deconstruct your item. This will be an in-class
poster presentation of your research project. More details to be given in class.
Final Project (Due Week 10, ie. The week before finals week): The purpose of this final
project is to integrate the information you gathered throughout the quarter, including that
from your poster presentation, digital timelines and maps, along with other sources,
images, and videos that you have found. Choosing a food commodity, dish, or restaurant,
you are asked to historically deconstruct your item. You will be expected to provide short
narratives explaining the images and content of the site you have put together, relating
those images to the themes that we will discuss throughout the semester. During the final
week of instruction, students will give brief (5-8 minute) presentations of their digital
projects. Digital presentation will be created using StoryMap and Google Sites. More
details will be given in class.
POTLUCK: During class on this week, we will also be having a potluck on the
days we are presenting. You are encouraged, but not required, to bring in a
sampling of a dish that is related to your research project. I’ll provide the utensils,
plates, etc! This is not obligatory, but I thought it would be a great opportunity for
us to share some dishes while learning about each others’ projects.
Peer Review of Final Project (Due noon, March 20): During Final’s Week, you will
review and critique five of your classmate’s digital projects.
Digital Recipe Book Contribution: For extra credit, you can contribute a historical recipe,
broadly linked to Asia-Pacific, to a digital recipe book that I plan on sharing with the
class.
Grading:
Midterm Poster Presentation: 25%
Lecture Attendance: 10%
In-class group reading presentation: 15%
Section and Short Writing Assignments: 20%
Final Digital Projects: 25%
Peer Review of Final Digital Projects: 5%
Academic Integrity
As your instructor, it is my responsibility to be present and ready to lecture, facilitate
discussion, and maintain an environment that is safe and open to all students. It is also my
responsibility to ensure that assignments and expectations for the course are clear. I will
always strive to be present and available to you. As students, you are expected to attend
class having completed the assigned readings. All work that you produce should be your
own. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. In many instances, people unknowingly plagiarized
the work of others. If you have any questions about what exactly constitutes plagiarism, I
encourage you to come talk with me. More information on university policies on
plagiarism and general help on citing sources can be found at the UCSC library website.You can also read
